How a tiny Brazilian brewery came to dominate the beer industry

A deal would be the year's biggest and combine two companies that control beer brands ranging from Fosters to Corona.

AB InBev can trace its origins to a merger between a pair of Brazilian brewers in 1999. After a string of deals that followed, it has grown to more than $47 billion in annual sales.

Those deals now total nearly $115 billion in value, according to data from Dealogic. The biggest was InBev SA's $60 billion takeover of Budweiser-maker Anheuser-Busch in 2011.

Even the smaller SABMiller is a product of a series of deals, starting with the combination that gave the company its name, a 2002 deal to merge South African Breweries and Miller Brewing.

If they reach a deal, it would combine two companies that control about 58% of the industry's $33 billion in global profits, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts. That could lead regulators to push them to sell off some of the brands they acquired over the years.

Here's a run through the biggest deals that created both companies.

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It all started with a $1 billion deal in 1999 to combine two Brazilian brewers and create AmBev.

Reuters

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In 2004, AmBev and Belgium's Interbrew merged to create the world's largest brewer. Carlos Brito, who now runs the combined company, was CEO of AmBev.

Reuters

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In 2002, South African Breweries merged with Phillip Morris' Miller Brewing in a $5.6 billion deal.

SAB factory.
SIPHIWE SIBEKO1/Reuters

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In 2008, InBev struck a deal to acquire Anheuser-Busch for $59.6 billion and create AB InBev.